Law to be amended to prevent Governor from nominating a syndicate member for a second term in any university

The State government has decided to amend the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000, to prohibit the Governor (Chancellor of all State universities) from nominating individuals for a second term on the syndicate of any State university, regardless of whether it’s the same university or another.

This decision stems from a recent disagreement between the Governor and the State government over the interpretation of the existing Act. The Governor has been nominating individuals who have served on the syndicate of one university to the syndicate of another.

For instance, B.R. Supreeth, whose term on the syndicate of Bengaluru North University (BNU) was to end in August 2025, was nominated by the Governor to the syndicate of Bengaluru City University in November 2024. Similarly, Rangappa and Devaraj, syndicate members of BNU, resigned from their positions in 2022 to join BCU and Tumkur University respectively as syndicate members.

The sub section-2 of Section-39 (Restriction of holding the membership of the authorities) of Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000 says: “Any person nominated to any of the authorities under this Act shall not be eligible for being nominated or elected for a second term”. While the State government interprets this as a bar on anyone serving for two terms as syndicate members of any State university, the Governor has interpreted this as a bar on a syndicate member being renominated for a second term in the same university.

To address this ambiguity and prevent further misinterpretations, the State government will introduce an amendment bill in the upcoming legislative session. This amendment will explicitly clarify that no individual who has served as a syndicate member of any State university is eligible for nomination to the syndicate of any other State university.

Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar said the Act clearly states that no person should be nominated as a member of the syndicate for a second term. “However, some people are misusing the Governor’s office and getting reappointed for a second term, interpreting the law in a different way. To prevent this, we have now decided to amend The Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000 to clearly stipulate that if a person has already served as a syndicate member of any State university, that person cannot be nominated again for a second term either to the same university or to any other university in the state,” he said.